Shaun Deeb's run in the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event has come to an end.
According to the other players at the table, he got his last 75,000 chips in preflop with ace-queen against Ryan Stoker's ace-king and failed to pull ahead against the bigger ace.
A player on the button raised to 10,000 before Allen Kessler shoved all in from the big blind for 76,000. The button gave it some thought but eventually decided to call.
Allen Kessler: A?A?
Button: 8?8?
Kessler had picked up aces and finished with a set on the 3?6?9?A?2? board to double up. "I only looked at the spade. I decided if I had an ace I was going to shove," Kessler admitted after the hand.
Patrik Antonius opened to 11,000 from middle position and received calls from Punnat Punsri in the cutoff and a player on the button.
The flop came 5?4?J? and Antonius made a continuation bet of 15,000, getting a call from Punsri while folding out the player on the button.
Antonius fired a second barrel for 75,000 on the 2? turn. Punsri made the call.
On the 8? river Antonius bet a third time for 70,000. Punsri responded by sliding a stack of green 25,000 chips forward, putting Antonius all in for his remaning 225,000.
Antonius went deep into the tank, drawing a crowd of spectators as the minutes passed by. After considering his options for just over 13 full minutes, Antonius sent his cards into the muck and Punsri collected a massive pot without showdown.
The remaining 1,710 players are on their last 20-minute break of the day. They will be returning to Level 15 with blinds at 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante.
With the money bubble fast approaching, the players are beginning to switch gears. Below are some of the highlights from the last two hours of play.
On a heads-up flop of A?J?4?, Kalidou Sow and Zach Hall were engaged in a betting war that resulted in a shove from Hall for 415,000 and a quick call from Sow to put him at risk.
Zach Hall: J?J?
Kalidou Sow: A?J?
Sow groaned when he saw that his top two-pair was in second place to Hall's set of jacks, which only left him with 2 ace outs to hit.
Unfortunately for him, the runout came 6?3? for Hall's jacks to hold for the huge double-up.
Patrick Tardif raised to 13,000 from middle position and the player in the big blind made the call. On the K?8?8? flop, Tardif continued for 8,000 and received another call.
The turn came the J? and Tardif upped the ante to a massive overbet of 45,000. Once again, the big blind check-called.
The river 4? completed the board and the big blind checked for the third time. This time, Tardif threw enough T-25,000 chips in the middle to put the big blind's stack of 105,000 all in.
The big blind thought for a while and eventually tossed in the call for his tournament life. Tardif tabled A?K? for two pair, and that was the winner when the big blind showed K?7? for the same two pair but with a worse kicker.
The big blind was eliminated and Tardif won a big pot around the bubble.
Upeshka De Silva raised under the gun to 12,000, a player in the cutoff three-bet to 36,000 and Jason Somerville came in with a cold four-bet to 85,000. De Silva folded and the action was back on the cutoff.
After some time in the tank, the cutoff jammed for his last 286,000 and Somerville snap-called.
Cutoff: A?Q?
Jason Somerville: A?A?
The board ran out 3?10?2?10?5?. Sommerville eliminated another player as the bubble approached.
Cody Daniels is still around during the bubble phase of the tournament. He was short-stacked all day but had begun to chip up as Day 3 started to wrap up. Then, he played two back-to-back hands against Shang Dai.
In the first hand, the pair had arrived on the turn on Q?2?8?J?. Daniels checked from middle position and Dai bet 25,000 into a pot of 50,0000 from the button. Daniels made the call and the 5? river appeared.
Daniels then checked again and Dai put out another 25,000. This time, Daniels quickly folded.
One hand later, the two tangled again as the flop read 3?9?3? and a pot of 45,000 was gathered. Daniels bet out 12,000 from early position and Dai responded with a raise to 28,000 from the cutoff.
Another quick fold followed from Daniels. Dai chipped up to over one million and the touching story of the terminally ill but ever-positive Daniels also continued.
Chance Kornuth and Scott Berko have been at the same table for the entire day, and their antics have had other players laughing throughout. Both players asked for a story to be shared, and Berko gave the details.
According to Berko, he raised preflop from early position. Kornuth, in the cutoff, confirmed it was Berko raising. "Is it you that's opening? If so, I call," said Kornuth to Berko before coming along.
The flop came 9?5?4?, and Berko checked. Kornuth bet 12,000, to which Berko called.
The turn came 8?, and Berko checked once more. Kornuth led out for 33,000, which Berko also called.
The river brought the 5x as well as one final check from Berko. Kornuth bet 93,000. Berko made the call. Kornuth showed J?J?, which was no good against the K?K? of Berko.
"He told me he was betting for value," said Berko with a smile on his face.
Day 3 of the 2023 World Series of PokerEvent #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas has come to a conclusion. The record for the largest WSOP Main Event field in its 54-year history was broken with a total of 10,043 entries, and only 1,518 remain.
The 10,043 entries generated a total prize pool of $93,399,900, smashing the previous record of $82,512,162 set in 2006 that had a total of 8,773 entrants.
In the 2006 edition of this event, Jamie Gold battled his way to victory and a $12,000,000 payday. The eventual winner this year will receive exactly $100,000 more, a symbolic gesture ensuring that the champion of the largest Main Event ever will also be its biggest winner. The minimum cash payout for 1,507th place will be $15,000, and the bubble is expected to burst very shortly on Day 4 as they are only 10 eliminations away.
2023 Main Event Payouts
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
$12,100,000
18-26
$345,000
288-350
$44,700
2
$6,500,000
27-35
$280,100
351-413
$40,000
3
$4,000,000
36-44
$229,000
414-476
$37,500
4
$3,000,000
45-53
$188,400
477-539
$35,000
5
$2,400,000
54-62
$156,100
540-602
$32,500
6
$1,850,000
63-71
$130,300
603-665
$30,000
7
$1,425,000
72-80
$109,400
666-764
$27,500
8
$1,125,000
81-89
$92,600
765-863
$25,000
9
$900,000
90-98
$78,900
864-962
$22,500
10-11
$700,000
99-161
$67,700
963-1004
$20,000
12-13
$535,000
162-224
$58,500
1005-1249
$17,500
14-17
$430,200
225-287
$50,900
1250-1507
$15,000
Chance Kornuth found himself at the top of the leaderboard after slowly climbing throughout the day. Kornuth crossed the 1,500,000 chip mark as he sent a player home with his pocket fours near the end of the night. Kornuth continued building to end Day 3 with 1,887,000 chips, enough for second place on the leaderboard.
Only Antonio Mallol Heredia (1,899,000) bagged up more chips than Kornuth, and only just. The Spaniard has a shade more than $75,000 in live tournament winnings, with the bulk of that sum stemming from a $49,610 score in 2018. Mallol Heredia has cashed twice at the 2023 WSOP, and is all but guaranteed to at least min-cash in the 2023 WSOP Main Event.
Another name in the overall top ten to look out for is Florida-based Michael Duek, who claimed 1,678,000 to his name. That puts Duek in seventh place with a staggering 210 big blinds for the upcoming bubble.
End of Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Antonio Mallol Heredia
Spain
1,899,000
237
2
Chance Kornuth
United States
1,887,000
236
3
Liran Betito
Israel
1,775,000
222
4
Pei Li
Canada
1,742,000
218
5
Nicholas Rigby
United States
1,719,000
215
6
Pavel Dyachenko
Canada
1,706,000
213
7
Michael Duek
Argentina
1,678,000
210
8
Nicholas Lee
Canada
1,639,000
205
9
Mason Vieth
United States
1,602,000
200
10
Michael Monroig
United States
1,552,000
194
Main Event Day 3 Action
Many notables took their seat at the start of the day, including poker crusher Alex Foxen, who had a great start, busting Giyeon Han near the beginning of the day to put him over 500,000 chips. Foxen continued to battle throughout the day and finished with a total of 638,000 in chips.
All-time leading WSOP Circuit ring winner Maurice Hawkins has had an impressive Main Event thus far, bagging the overall chip lead on Day 2d with 941,000, and has managed to keep the momentum going, closing out Day 3 with 1,028,000.
Nicholas Rigby found himself near the top of the leaderboard for the third-day straight, putting a total of 1,719,000 chips in the bag at the end of Level 15.
Many notables bagged over the 1,000,000 chip mark including, Pei Li (1,742,000), Chris Brewer (1,447,000), and Nikita Luther (1,294,000).
Day 4 resumes on July 10th at 12:00 p.m. local time. Five more 120-minute levels will be played, and 1,507 players will get paid, which means it is extremely likely that the money bubble will burst during the first level of play.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team continues to provide comprehensive coverage of the $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship.